Reginald A. Read, Jr., a professional engineer from LaGrange, Ill., collected these materials from his family farm in Flushing, New York. The collection includes family correspondence, photographs, lectures, mathematical problems, "An Application to the Regents of the University of the State of New York to incorporate Trinity College and Grammar School of Flushing, Jan. 16-30, 1845," a land indenture relating to property in Lattingtown, Oyster Bay Township, Queens County, and a statement of temperance. Correspondence subjects include the Erie Canal, Lafayette, the construction of a slaughterhouse, a voyage from Cape Town to London, the rise of business in New York, a performance of Romeo and Juliet, anti-Jacksonian politics, anti-Masonic meetings, religion, morality, and the importance of mathematics in a well-rounded education.

Reginald Read, Class of 1950, donated this collection of photocopies to the Library in 1990.